A rail vehicle, such as locomotive, that typically employs a communications based control system includes a database on-board the rail vehicle that contains attributes of the territory through which the rail vehicle travels. The database is typically uploaded from a master control source to the rail vehicle at the beginning of a trip. In some cases, a database is updated to change various attributes that reflect changing conditions of the territory. A rail vehicle that is already in motion on a trip when the database is updated has an originating version of the database which is no longer current when the database is changed by the master control source. During the trip, when the rail vehicle enters a new wayside zone of the territory, a wayside device transmits a query to the communications based control system on-board the rail vehicle to check for the current version of the database. When the rail vehicle detects that the on-board version of the database is not the current version, the system is configured so that the rail vehicle is commanded to go to a safe state (e.g., stop) and download the current version of the database to the communications based control system on-board the rail vehicle.
However, under some conditions, changes in the updated database are not relevant to operation of the rail vehicle during the trip, even in the new zone of the territory. Thus, stopping to upload the current version of the database generates an unnecessary disruption to operation that reduces efficiency and prolongs the trip of the rail vehicle.